well, whatever you do in life is gonna have risk involved. and putting something other than just air in your lungs is almost always going to have a bad effect. its just which is worse, cigarettes or shisha. i think cigarettes are a lot worse [maybe just an excuse] but that in the end, its your risk to take.

What you say is basically true. However, the question is one of the actual risk involved and once one tosses out the junk science and hysteria a careful reading what research around will show those of use with a bit of methodological training that the risks of cigarette use has been wildly overstated.

Very little worthwhile research has been done on narghile use but given the genetic issues are poorly understood and the range of smoking methods very so dramatically the prospects for worth while studies coming along. Of course, given that strong institutional biases exist with public health organizations these days it's economic suicide to try to publish a study that is not towing the anti-tobacco line.

Given that i've been smoking for 36 years with zero ill effect i'm not prone to buy into the anti-tobacco hysteria. Still, I do understand that i'm incurring a substantial risk but in the end I believe that my quality of life is higher thanks to tobacco.